Ruben Brekelmans, the defense minister in the Netherlands, stated that Poland will “defend NATO territory, protect supply to Ukraine, and deter Russian aggression” by sending 300 troops and Patriot air defense missile systems there.
Polish officials said that a drone fell in a cornfield in Poland’s east on Tuesday night, possibly a Russian version of the Shahed drone, as the Netherlands made the announcement on Wednesday.
No injuries were reported in the village of Osiny, close to Poland’s border with Ukraine, despite the drone’s explosion, according to an official cited by Poland’s state news agency PAP, who cited the incident as breaking windows in several homes.
Brekelmans informed Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Wednesday that Poland’s military support included those from other nations that provided similar assistance to the NATO-member nation that borders Ukraine.
Brekelmans made it clear that the Patriot systems would be in use in Poland and that the 300 soldiers that came with them did not indicate that the Netherlands was stationed in Ukraine.
According to a German air force spokesman cited by the German DPA news agency, Germany earlier this month sent five Eurofighter combat aircraft to Poland. The fighter jets were deployed ahead of joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises, according to the Kyiv Independent news outlet.
According to a report released on Wednesday, Germany also sent five Eurofighter jets and 270 soldiers to Romania.
In response to Russian airstrikes close to the Ukrainian border with Romania, DPA reported that two Eurofighter jets were mobilized for the first time on Tuesday night.
According to DPA, the jets, which took off from a military base in Romania, did not experience any problems.
Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the deputy prime minister of Poland and national defense, called on Russia to “provoke” the drone incident on Tuesday, citing “special moments in the ongoing dialogue about peace in Ukraine,” according to Polskie Radio.
On Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, was accompanied by several European leaders to the White House where one of the main topics of conversation was about how post-war security arrangements would be implemented in order to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, warned on Wednesday that trying to solve Ukraine security issues without Moscow’s involvement would lead to “road to nowhere.”
Source: Aljazeera
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